I've seen many interesting approaches to language teaching during my training, and most of them seem to have something unique and useful to offer, therefore I would opt for an eclectic method of teaching.
Mainly the Communicative and the Natural
approaches, are those which make most sense to me, and will probably be the base of
my teaching style: the main goal is communicative competence, and
as much as possible, the acquisition -not so much learning- of the
language. By approaching to languages in a similar way as we learn our mother tongue, we are aiming at a mind-changing habit,
the true incorporation of the language. As a speaker of three
dissimilar languages, I believe each language has its "voice" and its
"mindset" inside an individual's mind, not only enriching its being, but
changing the way that person thinks and conducts through life. I aim at
embedding the English language as deep as possible in my student's
minds. Also, the importance of sociocultural influences that is brought
up by the Communicative approach is of interest for my teaching ideal.
Traditionally, English has been taught as either British or American,
but globalization has been adding many other English speakers to the
picture, with whom students will have to deal with eventually. As our
pupils feel more confident and become more fluent with English, I
believe it is important to prepare them to communicate with these
speakers, as they will probably have to do in the real world.
CLIL
method also seems very interesting. Students can focus on other thing
that is not learning a language, and learn two things at a time! I think
it would be very interesting to apply this method to teach
"extracurricular" things students would feel interested in and are not a
school subject, and at the same time, make use of English.
I've been developing particular interest for the Montessori approach, since it encourages independence within a controlled environments, and make emphasis in stimulating and appealing environments and teaching materials. As a person with a high tendency to design, this approach appeals to the creative in me.
Also, I believe there are some things on the Waldorf approach worth using, but I still need to get a proper insight in this approach to assert and expand this statement. The thing that attracts me the most is (and I quote Wikipedia here) that this "pedagogy emphasizes the role of imagination in learning, striving to integrate holistically the intellectual, practical, and artistic development of pupils.".
Sample of Montessori materials for language teaching
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